Constraining Shock Power and Dust Formation in Type II Supernovae with Roman
| Program ID | 19064 |
|---|---|
| Science Category | Stellar Physics |
| Program Type | Analysis |
| Category | Small |
| Principal Investigator | Wynn Jacobson-Galan |
| PI Institution | California Institute of Technology |
| Co-Investigators |
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| Abstract | Constraining how red supergiant (RSG) stars end their lives is a central problem in astrophysics, with direct implications for supernova diversity, compact object formation, and chemical enrichment. In the final centuries before explosion, RSGs lose mass through winds and eruptive events, creating circumstellar material (CSM) that encodes late-stage stellar evolution. When supernova ejecta collide with this CSM, shock interaction converts kinetic energy into radiation and can dominate the emission at late times (>500 days), providing a powerful probe of progenitor mass loss. We propose to leverage the depth and wide-area coverage of the Roman High Latitude Wide Area Survey (HLWAS) to identify and characterize shock-powered emission in historical Type II supernovae (SNe II). Roman will dramatically expand the sample of late-time SNe II detected in the near-infrared, enabling the a robust NIR statistical study of shock interaction on years-to-decades timescales. By measuring deviations from radioactive decay in light curves and detecting NIR excess emission, we will constrain shock power and infer mass-loss rates during the final centuries-to-millenia before core collapse. We will model multi-band spectral energy distributions with state-of-the-art radiative transfer simulations in order to quantify dust masses and temperatures associated with CSM interaction, linking shock heating to dust formation. This program will establish the prevalence of shock-powered SNe II and provide critical constraints on late-stage RSG mass loss and SN shock physics. |